I agree with Christine. Even though you make the heavy feelings of guilt and remorse very real, you also give the reader that sense of having come to terms with it in the only way people can at that point. And coming to terms with it gives a kind of closure of its own. You’ve done a good job showing both sides of the experience.

Not too long ago, I officiated at a funeral where several of the family members experienced this kind of situation. One daughter, who had not made any real effort to be close to her mother in her last few years was grieving seriously. She kept putting enormous effort into elaborate funeral arrangements, including so many bits and pieces that it was exhausting. I know it was partly because of the feelings of having neglected to show the love and caring earlier. But one of her consolations was that her mother continued to phone her periodically, and the last phone message she had left was still on this daughter’s answering machine. She was determined to find a way to save that message of her mother’s voice so that she would have it from now on, and that gave her some resolution and peace.

I was recently at a funeral and it got me thinking about this and consequently I wrote the poem. I think these sorts of feelings must be quite common as the pace of modern living, distance from friends and loved ones and the swift passage of time make keeping in touch even more difficult until sometimes it is too late. Thanks for the comment Sandra.

Losing someone is never easy, and it is too easy to become separated in the modern world. Once we were all of a place, and in this place our friends and relatives congregated into communities, but that’s all gone now. In some ways I believe we have advanced as human beings, but in many other ways it seems as if we’ve advanced by going backwards. This is a thoughtful, good poem Dennis.